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Story:Invisible Cities/Dynhallow
Notes found on the back of an image from a traveler’s journal, left by the side of the road: Dynhallow is a city of two ideals: prosperity and innovation. If you can provide one, the other—it is said—is sure to follow. For most, this justifies her form: a large, metal hemisphere cut open on top, which creates an extreme difference in lifestyle between the upper and lower cities. In the upper city, towering estates rise into the blue dome created by the supply of charglass used to keep the atmosphere from poisoning its inhabitants and allow them to live under an open sky. In the lower city, networks of metal hallways, pipes, and ventilation shafts form a tangled hive of activity for the lower classes. The higher one lives in the city, the longer that life tends to be, and the more wealth that tends to enter one’s pocket. Those in the lower city work the factories, producing the materials needed for inventors and merchants looking to sell goods to the caravans that maintain trade between Dynhallow and the other cities of the world. Surrounded by a bleak wasteland, Dynhallow’s inventors long ago provided an alternative solution to the charglass that other cities rely so heavily upon for their protection. By constructing towering windmills, they generate energy for the city while reducing the wind speed from a blistering howl to a mere breeze. This alone seems to protect the city from the effects of the harsh environment, though arcane scholars from Akhomet have made claims that it should not be sufficient, believing instead that the inventors of Dynhallow either rely on a secret supply of charglass or that they have some hidden invention they continue to hide from the rest of the world. While factories spew black smog into the air around the city, the winds that remain lack the strength to blow it away, leaving an always-present, low-hanging cloud over the city that is visible from many miles away. Dynhallow’s elite, residing in the open-skied upper city, live their entire lives beneath that cloud, although they themselves never feel its toxic effects. Rain that comes down through the charglass barrier is purified of contaminants, and leaves their city cleaner than before. Unhindered by direct threats to their survival, the nobles and elite merchants of Dynhallow compete to gain more political influence with the ruling family, and increase their wealth and mercantile assets through more subtle means. Indentured servants manage their household tasks, while they attend balls, galas, and soirees, seeking to undermine opposing houses and ally themselves with their superiors. Meanwhile, in the lower city, the working class strives to make a living while choking on this same black smog that inevitably clings to the air in even the most vented passageways. It is on these people that Dynhallow’s soul truly thrives. Although work is often easy to find, it is not always savory or safe. The lower city is infested with all manner of gangs, and the children are often sent into ventilation shafts to collect fallen objects of value from the upper city. Many of these children venture too close to the outside of the city and become afflicted by physical changes caused by exposure to the outside atmosphere. Those that survive may become feared among the gangs, and thus gang leaders tend to encourage such risky behavior. Although the gangs have a strong grip on the undercity, Dynhallow’s legions protect the wealthy, and ensure that any violence that ensues in the upper city does not restrict outgoing trade. Armed with rifles, electrical cannons, and other inventions of war, the might of the legions is well respected, if not feared, by the gangs. These legions also provide a strong incentive for other cities to avoid war with Dynhallow, and help to dissuade caravan pirates from attacking traders while within range of Dynhallow.